Yeah. Sorry. I didn't update like I had expected to. I'm a terrible person. I have no excuses.

***LineBreak***

"What do you MEAN you didn't rescue her?!"

"I'm sorry, sire," the man bent his head lower to the floor. "She was taken by the thief."

The King spun around. "Perseus?"

The man nodded and the Queen stood up. "I thought you said you captured the ENTIRE crew?"

"Well..." the man flinched. "The captain isn't considered to be in the crew..."

The Lady Athena glared at the man and dismissed him to fetch their family's royal trainer. Frederick rubbed his face with anger and sat down on his throne. "What do we do, Athena?"

"Don't worry, Frederick," she sat down next to him and grabbed his hand. "We will get her back."

The King sighed. "But how? He is an immortal man who does not get captured very easily."

"We do know of his loyalty to his friends," she smiled. "And we know that he would never abandon them."

Looking up, he gave her a smile, and they nodded.

"My Lady." The King and Queen look up to see a blonde man bow before them.

"Ah, the Queen stands up and smiles. "Luke. Thank you for coming."

The man looks up and stands. "I would do anything for you. Have you heard news on Annabeth? Is she alright?"

Athena sighs. "It's dreadful, Luke. Perseus has taken her away and we have lost all whereabouts on them."

"So why have you called me?"

Athena smiled. "Because we know where they are heading."

***LineBreak***

It's dark, and I can't quite see his face, but I know that occasionally as he paces, he keeps glancing over at me with his wide eyes. Both eyes. Two of them.

I don't understand. Poking the fire with the stick, my thoughts rush through my head constantly. Why did he give the impression that he lost his eye? Did anyone else know? Is he even cursed at all?

I wanted to voice these aloud, but knew I couldn't bare myself to say anything.

Looking up, I see Percy give a sigh and sit down across from me on the opposite side of the small fire. We sit in awkward silence, but glancing at him, he doesn't seem to feel it. He's clearly caught up in his thoughts about the crew and if they were okay. I feared that my parents' would not be so kind to them if they were captured.

"You have questions." I look up to Percy's eyes flickering at me. He looks less angry than I had suspected. I thought he would be furious because of what's happened, but he almost seemed scared; something I never expected to see on his face.

"I know how you feel about answering them." I look back down at the fire, unable to stare at him any longer. He just looks so terrified.

"I want to." I look up. "Answer them, I mean."

I nod and look back down. "Why did you pretend to have lost an eye?"

"I did lose an eye... for a short while. I'm immortal; it healed, eventually."

"Did anyone else know?"

He shook his head. "Only Grover. He helped me recover as I was healing."

Nodding, I discussed with myself whether or not to ask. "And... in the stories. It said you were cursed. Are you not..?"

He lowered his head and sighed. "I am cursed; with immortality."

"I don't see how that's a problem-"

"It is!" He jerks his head up and glares, but then his look softened. "So many things, I have been tortured with, and not just physically. For so long, I have wanted the relief of death, but I can never attain it."

He was silent after. I listened to the crackling of the fire and looked into his deep green eyes. I had never seen past his wall, but now that I had, I wish I hadn't. He looked so pained and so weakened. I worried for him.

"Is... is there no way that you can get what you want..?"

He shook his head. "I can only die by one way, and I can assure you, I am unlikely to get it."

My eyes widened. I had expected a dead-end. "What is it?"

"My dad," he wouldn't meet my gaze. "He has to give me his blessing."

My breath was hitched in my throat. "Your dad?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "He's the one who gave me my immortality. It's because of him that I'm immortal."

"So, it was passed down to you by your dad. It's an inheritance thing."

He nods. "It doesn't always happens, but it's almost a certain thing that being immortal and having a kid, they will be immortal too... you're lucky."

I scrunched my eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"Your mom," he frowned. "She's immortal too. I thought you knew that."

I felt like a rug was swept out from under me. I couldn't talk, and I couldn't breathe. My mother was immortal?

"Annabeth!" I look up to see Percy kneeling in front of me. "I'm sorry, I thought you knew."

I shook my head and took deep breaths. "I didn't... and what about my dad?"

Percy sat down beside me. "He's immortal too; became immortal by your mom, just as my crew became immortal off of me."

"A blood bond..." I nod.

"My mother... she became immortal off of my dad..." He swallowed, and choked on his next words. "She was killed..."

I shushed him as he leaned forward to put his head in his hands. "You don't have to say it."

I began to rub his back, but he sat back up. "Your parents... it was during a raid. Your parents were attacking, and my mother was trying to protect me when I was young. She was able to be killed because they dealt her a mortal wound, and a mortal wound can kill an immortal that became immortal by a blood bond."

I gave him a sad look, but he did not meet my eyes. He was silent, and I felt the need to change the subject.

"What about me? I'm not immortal, but yet my parents are." He nodded.

"It already doesn't happen often that an immortal has a child, but if one of your parents aren't immortal, you have the 50/50 chance that you may be."

I frowned. "But you said that both my parents were immortal."

He nodded. "Right now, they are. At the time, your dad wasn't immortal. He only became immortal after you were born. Both of my parents were immortal at the time, so I was certain to be."

"Why didn't my parents ever make me immortal through a blood bond if they wanted me to be?"

He shook his head. "It's impossible. Though I don't understand why, a blood bond cannot work between two people of the same blood. Call it irony, but it is true."

"Oh..." I was confused, and slightly hurt. My parents were immortal and didn't make sure that I was too? I wondered if they had intended it that way.

"They didn't mean for you to be mortal," Percy was looking at me when I looked up. "They tried everything. They had even tried to convince another immortal to do a blood bond with you."

My eyes widened. "There's another immortal?"

"Yeah," he nodded slowly. "It was my dad."

It was silent. My parents knew his dad? Why did his dad say no?

"Come on," Percy stood up and moved to the other side of the fire. "We should get some sleep. We have to get moving once the sun starts to rise."

I silently lay down and turned my back from him. Lots of my questions were answered, but I had gained many more.

***LineBreak***

"I KNOW he's coming for us," Piper tried to calm everyone down. Her friends were either restless or pacing.

Clarisse huffed. "Oh yeah? Why would he? It's not safe for him here. We could live here all of our lives, but if he shows his face, he'll be dead. It's suicide."

"We're his friends," Piper tried to keep pushing the fact. "He has said it before, and he has proven that he will never leave us."

No one responded, and Piper hoped that they were all thinking about what she was saying, but she kept quiet. Clarisse sat down next to Thalia. Jason and her were leaning on each other, both practically asleep. The two of them had been in the throne room all night, being questioned by the King and Queen as to where Percy was.

Piper felt lonely sitting right next to Jason, but him choosing to be comforted by his sister than her. She instead made conversation with Frank, Leo, and Grover. Hazel and Rachel sat on the other side of the small cell, braiding and unbraiding each others' hair, for they had nothing else to do. Nico sat alone in the corner, surrounded by shadows.

"I know Percy will not leave us here. He's probably on his way right now." Piper was whispering to her friends and Frank nodded.

"He could be, but there is no way that anyone could get into the castle and break us out of here; even him."

Leo shook his head. "Maybe we could try and escape. I mean, we're not useless. We could try."

"What could we do? We're in a metal cell with a lock and the key is who knows where."

Looking at both Leo and Frank, she could tell they were both thinking. Looking at Grover, she noticed that he held his arms around himself and his eyes were closed. "How's it going Grover? Have you been able to contact him?"

Grover sat for another few seconds before he opened his eyes and sighed. "No. I feel his presence, but I don't think he's able to hear me."

Before Piper could say another word, a guard banged on the cell, jolting everyone to attention. "I have orders to take one of you to the throne room unless you can tell me where your captain is."

Thalia stood up and made her way to the guard, as if to speak, but she spit in his face. The guard growled and called over another few guards. They opened the door and one of them grabbed Thalia. Jason and Clarisse stood up and tried to help, but the other guards wee holding them back.

"Hey, let go of me, now!" Thalia was struggling, but still too weak from the night before.

"Leave her alone!" Jason tried to break free, but with the same results. "What are you going to do?!"

The guards closed the cell after dragging Thalia out, still kicking and screaming. One of them smiled back at us. "If you won't tell us, we'll have to make you; one by one."

Glaring and smiling, the guard left. Jason, Clarisse and Frank were at the gate, shaking it and frantically yelling at the guards.

Piper looked around at the rest of her friends. They all just looked back, scared and afraid. Grover had his eyes closed and he was breaking into a sweat; no doubt still trying to connect to Percy. She plopped down and put her head down in her hands.

It was hopeless.

***LineBreak***

"Percy!"

Percy stopped walking and closed his eyes. I turned back and looked at him. His eyes were clenched shut and he was holding his head.

"Percy?" I walked back to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"Percy!"

He hissed in pain, but said nothing.

"Percy... Thalia. They... you have to..."

He cried out in pain and squatted to the ground. I knelt beside him and asked him what was wrong but he wasn't answering. He kept his head lowered to the ground, his arms wrapped around himself, and his eyes shut tight.

I pulled my bag from around my shoulder and pulled out a water bottle. "Percy. Drink some water."

I knew it could heal him. He told me earlier today when he woke up to a dozen ant bites on his arm. Water had healed them instantly.

He didn't answer; he just kept hissing in pain. I was tempted to just dump the water on his head when he suddenly took a deep inhale of breath. He kept breathing heavily and loudly, and almost fell over when he straightened his back.

"Whoa, careful..." I grabbed both of his shoulders and made sure that he wasn't going to fall. I tried to make eye contact with him, but his eyes were glued firmly to the sky. After waiting for about a minute, Percy finally looking down at the ground and put his hands down to steady himself.

"Here," I put the water bottle in his line of sight. "Drink some water."

He finally looked at me, but his face was unreadable. He grabbed the water and stood up to drink it. When he downed the whole bottle and put the cap back on, I stood up too.

"What was that?"

He shook his head. "It was Grover. We have a sort of empathy link between us. We can communicate easily no matter how far we are with ease, but he was struggling with trying to talk to me."

"So why was he having trouble?"

Percy started to walk, but with a faster pace. "It means he's hurt. I could feel it, too. And based on what I could hear, so is Thalia, and more than likely, the rest of the crew, as well."